


CATC Side-Stories

by Undead Artist (UndeadArtist)



Series: CATC [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Anxiety, Character Development, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Female Friendship, Fluff, Gen, Lesbian Character, Politics, Strong Female Characters, Suicidal Thoughts, Women Being Awesome, casual nudity, hinata is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 23:04:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15375378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadArtist/pseuds/Undead%20Artist
Summary: Claws Amidst the Cracks: Side-Stories Edition.Chapters can be read on their own - will add a brief summary at the beginning of each one."They clash, they stumble, they mis-say and trample all over each other’s feet. They’re kunoichi – fight is in their blood and there’s both savagery and warning between friendly hugs and happy grins."





	CATC Side-Stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An exploration of Hinata's development as Ambassador of Konohagakure and her growing relationship Temari. Links up with chapter 12 of CATC.
> 
>  **Summary:**  
>  Hinata's world is turned upside down after the chuunin exams when Tsunade appoints her as Ambassador of Konoha. 
> 
> She finds friendships in surprising places as she grows, not just as a person, but as a kunoichi of Konohagakure.

Hinata is convinced everything is a terrible mistake by the seventh hour and she’d very much like to wake up please-and-thank-you. 

-

The entire horror begins with being called to the Hokage’s office, on her own, as Kiba clasps her shoulder and Shino is saying something and Hinata is fairly sure she’s blanked out even as she follows Shizune-san with as much dignity she can muster. 

She counts her blessings when she doesn’t trip, faint or walk into a pole. 

Hinata really does not like the sympathetic smile of the other and she likes the grimace she sees briefly flit-on-by even less as she’s given a gentle shove into the office of her Godaime Hokage. 

“I’m officially making you an Ambassador of Konoha,” her Hokage is saying and – Hinata faints, because of course she does.

When she wakes up she has a miraculous two-second relief of it was a dream before a harried looking chuunin stumbles inside and dumps and entire armful of scrolls into her lap with a _good luck, Taishi-san!_

-

She barely has three days before she’s shipped off to Kuza accompanied by a jounin and genin fresh out of the academy. 

It comes with the dawning horror of _this is not a joke_ and _I’m actually expected to do this._

Hinata spends the nights reading until she’s starting to look suspiciously like a raccoon. The jounin accompanying her halts her the day before they arrive at Kuza and sits her down after leaving her genin in charge or their camp.

“Tonight you’ll sleep,” she tells her and Hinata knots her fingers together so hard that she fears bruises on her skin. “No one is going to take you seriously if you arrive looking like you’ve been thrown in on the deep end.” Her words aren’t harsh but Hinata flinches anyway. “Take a moment to yourself. Really think. Can you do this in the name of Konoha? Are you the right person to represent our will?” 

Hinata spends a long hour staring into the lake of the water, seeing herself reflected young, pale-faced and afraid, before she draws a deep breath and shoves her face into it and screams. 

She returns and shuffles into her tent with as much dignity she can muster, flushing when she notices the genin gaping at her dripping wet form.

-

It goes as well as is expected. 

She’s thirteen and the Kuza man she’s meeting with looks at her as if she’s the bug beneath his shoes. It isn’t unlike how the rest of her clan looks at her and her first reaction is to flinch, to shrink, to disappear. 

“Is this her?” he sneers. 

-

 _“You’re no longer representing just yourself,”_ Shizune tells her as she comes to see her off. _“And Tsunade-sama wouldn’t have chosen you without reason. Hold that chin high.”_

-

Her hands is trembling but she hides it in her long lilac robes and meets his eyes with the pearly eyes of the Hyuuga that are simultaneously revered and whispered about in disgust. 

“Thank you for coming to meet us Yagami-san,” she copies her grandmother’s demure tone but makes it strong, as strong as the Konoha she serves and refuses to let it tremble. “Her Most Revered must be pleased to have someone with your loyalty.” 

He flushes and his body-language relaxes as something blotchy and red stains his cheeks.

“They didn’t tell me you would be so young,” he tries to save face. 

She thinks, she hopes, that she will make her village proud as she follows him on legs that want nothing more than to fold beneath her and with a confidence that is only borrowed.

She holds her chin high even she bends her entire body in a bow and prays that it’s enough (that she is enough). 

-

She gets sent on another errand.

A third.

A fourth.

“You did good,” Tsunade tells her after the last one when Hinata wants nothing more than to go home and cry because she feels both stupid and inadequate after a week of being made a fool. “You can only ever do your best and I am telling you, as your Hokage, that I am proud of you.” 

-

She’s eating hot soup in the cold of Iron Country when a familiar voice nearly makes her drop her cup of tea. 

She turns to look at the lump of blankets and – it is certainly Sabaku no Temari beside her, looking miserable in a swaddle of what looks like three blankets and two scarfs. Everything but her eyes are completely hidden but the voice and the teal eyes that turn balefully to her upon becoming aware of her staring are unmistakable. 

“Ah, you’re that girl who got beat up by her cousin at the chuunin exam,” Temari sniffles. 

“A-and you’re the girl who was afraid of her own little brother,” Hinata says without thinking, still at edge from her earlier meetings.

She’s too horrified by herself to do anything but flush and stammer her apologies that she nearly has a heart attack when the older girl throws her head back with a laugh that turns into a cough and wet eyes as Hinata shoves her tea into her hand. 

“Sorry,” Temari rasps as Hinata flags down the owner for a pitcher of lavender tea. “I hate the cold.” She grimaces. “What are you doing here anyway? I don’t see your team.” She slumps forward slightly to breathe the fumes as Hinata pours for her, visibly shivering. 

“I’m here as the Ambassador of Konoha.” Hinata traces the rim of her cup.

Temari gives her a contemplative look as she lowers her bunched scarfs just enough to edge the rim of her own cup to her mouth and takes a long sip with a grimace of disgust. The next sip is grudging. 

“Suppose we’ll be seeing each other then.” She sticks out a hand covered in a pair of thin knitted gloves. “Temari, Ambassador of Suna.”

-

Temari’s words prove true and Hinata finds herself sharing lunch, breakfast and dinner with the blunt Suna Ambassador in all sorts of places. 

Sometimes they are just doors down from each other and then, on a notable occasion in Waterfall, just opposite.

Hinata finds herself smiling and sharing a laugh with the older girl as they both step out of their rooms to the view of the other and Temari invites her along for tea and ice cream before dinner with a grin.

She’s wearing a dark green kimono today with mesh beneath it. It goes well together with the lilac of Hinata’s own sleeveless shirt.

“Did you know my brother has made friends with your Hokage’s assistant?” Temari asks as she flags down the waitress for an entire pitch of tea. “I’ll bet anything they’re sending us along to the same places to make sure we don’t end up dead in a ditch somewhere.” She leans an elbow on the table, chin in her hand.

It’s been over a year since she made Ambassador and while she does run into other spokes people and representatives from different villages and communities she crosses paths with Temari at least twice as often.

It would make sense, Hinata thinks as she licks her ice cream contemplatively. 

“I-I’m glad then,” she looks down at her ice cream, feeling shy. “I enjoy our meetings.” 

She completely misses the way the blunt girl opposite her goes pink, clearing her throat harshly and looking anywhere but at the other. “I do to.” She shoves a large gathering of melting ice cream into her mouth as Hinata valiantly resists melting through the floor.

-

They’re Ambassadors but they’re also kunoichi of their respective villages.

Hinata is accompanied to and from the villages but her escort is never welcome at the hotels she stays at – it’s considered rude. A distrust shown towards those who hosts her. It doesn’t ensure her safety and the bond between Konoha and whatever village she’s sent to is never something that can be guaranteed and it makes her work both difficult and dangerous.

Tsunade-sama is especially tense the first time she’s sent to Iwa, spending nearly three hours walking her through what-ifs and to-does and makes sure she knows that she can abandon it at any time she thinks her safety might be put in jeopardy. 

She then makes Shizune do the same, just in case she missed something.

And so it is that Hinata stops the heart of her first assassin and she spends nearly ten minutes panicking until she remembers Temari.

It’s the first time she actively reaches out to the other and Temari yanks the door open at the second touch of her fist against it, robes rumpled and hair askew. 

She doesn’t waste a second pulling Hinata inside, sits her down and makes her tea after tucking her in a thick enough blanket that she soon feels like a heated cocoon. 

“I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner,” Temari says as she makes her a cup of tea and Hinata thinks she’s entirely too calm when there’s a body cooling on her bedroom floor. “No one is going to blame you and the body will be unmarked. All it will show is that you’re not to be trifled with. They’ll grudgingly admire that and will even be a tad more respectful the next time you enter the village.”

“I-I can’t just leave it there,” Hinata says as she sips her tea, nearly melting when she realises it’s her favourite. 

“Yes you can,” Temari says bluntly. “You should probably prepare to get out of the village, too, because there’s at least five more on the roof right and this moment and they’re not feeling very friendly.” Her tone is wry.

And so it comes that Hinata flees Iwa with the Suna Ambassador, barefoot and only wearing their sleeping robes while pursued by assassins. 

-

Temari is right, though, and when Hinata turns up at Iwa a year later the spokesperson that meet her at the gate bows deep enough to turn her cheeks pink.

She grudgingly tells the older girl as much two months later and Temari grins broad enough that Hinata nearly walks into a telephone pole.

She thinks of bare legs, the flash of flesh beneath the moon as they tore through their pursuers. Of her favourite tea served in Temari’s personal bedroom (despite the fact that Temari loathes lavender tea) and the way the older girl doesn't hesitate to bring her inside, at the risk of herself and even Suna’s reputation. 

Thinks, _oh._

-

Tsunade-sama puts her under the charge of Anko-san for five months after Iwa. The older woman is harsh, critical, disinterested in and it clearly chafes at her to have been put in charge of someone like the clan heiress of the Hyuuga’s. 

She makes Hinata think of Naruto of all people.

“Is this the best you can do?” she mocks when Hinata sinks bruised and bleeding to the training ground. 

There’s something dark and triumphant in her eyes until Hinata forces herself up and gets back in position, eyes burning with determination.

-

Her father tells her she’s weak, a shame to the clan.

Her sister hates her. 

Her mother dies young and sick and for a long time Hinata finds herself lost in the world, without meaning, a failure at the only thing that’s expected of her. She sinks and stammers and it gets to the point that when she’s assigned to team 8 she wakes up some mornings thinking of death and hating herself for being so weak.

She clings to the ideal of the bravest person she knows and thinks that – if she could just borrow a little bit of him, then maybe - 

She finds meaning in her work as Ambassador, grows as she challenges hypocrisy, sexism and hatred with pleasant smiles and words that curb and sting under false propriety. She stumbles, weeps pitifully, stuggles not to give up and prevails under the harshest of critics.

“Most of them are idiots,” Temari tells her bluntly. “We do the best we can for our villagers and sometimes it’s enough, sometimes it’s not. We can only do our best to live up to the faith and expectation that our Kage’s put on us.” It’s Hinata’s first cup of sake and they’re sitting on a grassy training ground in Kuza. “No one expects you to win over them all.” 

Hinata looks into her cup and takes a deep breath before downing it all.

 _Chin up_ , she tells herself and holds it out for a refill.

-

Anko beats her to the ground and Hinata gets up again. 

And again.

And again.

And again.

She’s Hyuuga Hinata, Ambassador of Konoha and heiress to the Hyuuga clan. 

She will not- 

-

She wakes up in a hospital to a stick of dango being shoved into her face and a grouchy but apologetic Anko seated on a chair beside her. She accepts it with a croak of thanks and Anko slumps in her chair, mouth opening-

Tsunade appears like a whirlwind and hauls Anko over her shoulder with the sort of terrifying ease that send most scattering out of her path at the first whisper of her name. 

Shizune plants herself on the edge of her bed with a pleasant smile and a gentle pat on her calf and Sakura inches inside with wide-eyes.

-

It changes between them after that and one day after training Anko invites her along to one of the shinobi bars. She’s introduced to Yugao who looks at her as if she’s a particularly interesting alien when Anko throws an arm over her shoulder and plants a wet, drunken kiss on her cheek. 

-

Tense meetings, a lot of ribbing, some explosions and a lot of blood. 

Temari brings her friend Nara Em and somehow they become quality friends, the five of them. 

It’s an entire new experience to Hinata. They aren’t part of her team and Anko finishes up the five months of training and stays. 

They clash, they stumble, they mis-say and trample all over each other’s feet. They’re kunoichi – fight is in their blood and there’s both savagery and warning between friendly hugs and happy grins. They meet at bars when they can and Temari is made official spokesperson between Konoha and Suna two months before Hinata turns sixteen.

Yugao, who is by rule the calmest of them, turns out to five years deep into ANBU business.

It’s an entirely accidental reveal and Hinata is the first to laugh and it’s tinged with just a touch of mania as she flops into a giggling, naked heap on the ground after a night that that has ended up with them in the Forest of Death. Em glares at her, covered in enough goop to make a slime envious, but Yugao merely keeps on snoring where she’s curled on the heiress’s belly, not a slip of clothing on her body and the tattoo on her arm bare for the world to see. 

Temari smells faintly of ash and blood where she flops down beside her to watch a drunk Anko wrestle a not-so-drunk Em to the ground. 

They look at each other and Hinata thinks, _oh,_ when Temari grins at her, wide and free and beautiful despite being covered in guts and dirt.

-

She turns sixteen and the jounin exams are being held in Suna. 

She finds herself in the company of her cousin, a grinning Yamanaka Ino and a sleepy looking Shikamaru who looked like he’d rather be anywhere but on a one week trip to Suna. 

“You’ve changed,” Ino tells her on the third day and Hinata flushes but smiles as she thanks her.

They meet regularly during Ochiba meetings, of course, but it’s not often they get to sit down and really talk outside their teams one-by-one. Neither Neji nor Shikamaru have much in common but they are both comfortable with silence which Ino was very much opposed to. Hinata is the middle ground and truthfully she doesn’t mind it. 

They had never been close at the academy, had barely spoken, but they are both kunoichi of Konoha and they’re older, have mellowed out in ways that matter. 

Hinata entertains the idea of Anko and Ino together when the blonde speaks of her work at T&I. 

Anko dominates the darker domains while Ino works intelligence and undoubtedly their paths will pass sooner or later. She knows from Sakura that Ino is already doing seduction missions but she also knows from Anko that they almost never recruits anyone into Torture under eighteen. Anko is a bit of an oddity there, being the ex-charge of the Snake Sannin and trailing after Morino Ibiki at fifteen.

“Must have been terrifying,” Ino muses. “Ambassador at thirteen.” 

“In some ways,” Hinata agrees. “B-But I had a lot of help.” 

Ino grins and tells her to not sell herself short. 

-

The day before the last exam Temari takes her into the middle of the desert. She’s visibly nervous and Hinata looks at her – truly looks at this brilliant woman and wants in ways that she’s always denied herself. 

“I love you.” The words come easily to her and she doesn’t look at Temari as she says them. 

Instead she looks over the expanse of red dunes alight in a way that makes it look like they’re on fire under the setting sun. 

Temari’s hands are calloused on her cheeks and she kisses Hinata with all the hunger of the desert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, self-indulgent as fuck: 
> 
> *makes lesbians*
> 
> *headcanons an entire story arc bcs _lesbians_ *
> 
> "goddamnit"


End file.
